Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I have been thinking about writing a detailed post on many things. But somehow I thought lets start with something simple to share with everybody. Specially with my Indian friends as they are my top readers in last one month!.

If you are looking for Indian food for lunch or dinner in Singapore, they are ample choices available Island Wide(pretty word used by all business people!). So whether you are a tourist or person living here, finding Indian food is not tough. Most of the places near offices are there, you will find some food court(A place where all food stalls are located) which serves Indian or Indian type(whats that?!) food. Keep looking for names like Komala's, Jaggi's, Sarvana Bhavan, Pangaat or similar sounding Indian name!.

Also look for Indian Muslim Shops who offer Roti Prata!. This is something Unique to Singapore and many people like it.

Now time for the cost. The cost of the food is depending on where you eat. Most of the places the South Indian dishes cost around $5 to $8 depends on what you eat. A simple south indian meal which has Rice, Daal(Some call it Dhaal in Singapore!), Veg Curry, Chapati and some Indian pickle will cost you around $6+ at Komala's or Sarvana Bhavan. If you are looking for North Indian food, I have tried Jaggi's at 2-3 outlets and food is always good and consistent in quality.If you are fond of some sweets you can get Gulab Jamun for $1 or $3 depends on quantity!. You like Aloo Paratha or some other stuff paratha, you get that too!. You can order Paratha Set which consists of 2 stuff paratha's, one curry, yoghurt and some pickle for $6 or $7.

All the costs which I gave above are for the food stalls you see in Food courts or typical Indian food places. Most of the time you will be fine with less than $10 bill for Indian Food. If you are paying more than $20 for Indian Food in Singapore either you are in some mall like Vivo City or at Orchard where the ambiance is what making the food costly!. So decide what you want ..Self-Service Food Stall with good food or leisurely dinner at Orchard Road or Boat Quay!

About western food it is around $8-$10 depending on area. I have been to couple of Mexican places were it would cost around $20+ per person.

Now which is the best place to eat Indian Food for dinner ?

My favorites are :

Anjappar at Race Course Lane, Little India

Bombay Cafe @ Suntec

Jaggi's @ Tanjong Pagar Complex

Chutney @ Orchard Road

Rang Mahal @ Pan Pacific - btw the lunch buffet here costs only $40! - I would recommend as you are getting authentic Indian Food with 5* ambiance here.

My favorite place for eating South Indian food is Murugan Idli Shop @ Syed Alwi Road.

Some Tips

Ask your friend to recommend you a restuarant before heading for a 30-45 minute commute to have a great dinner!

Expensive food is not necessarily will be having great quality

Do not compare taste which you still have in memory from India!...unles you are in Rang Mahal @ Pan Pacific!

Generally there is no Tipping in Singapore as most of the restuarants will add the service charge in the bill. If you still like the food you are most welcome !

Avoid going to Food Courts late in the night(Food do not taste that fresh) or at peak times(12-1pm) in the afternoon. You will be spending most of the time in finding place for sitting!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Yesterday I found Odiogo. Its a FREE service to convert your blogs to a Text To Speech on the go Blog. Its an excellent idea. The entire setup for my blog took just 10 minutes. You need to give your email id and blog URL. Then you get a confirmation email from Odiogo and that's it your blog is now available for download as an MP3 or readers can directly click on the button on your posts to listen them online. Also an audio feed is available on this URL : My Audio Blog!

One more way to communicate with my readers. I found the service good. The voice and accent in the speech is quite good. Also it does make use of punchuations I believe. Need to experiment more with blogs now!

Let me know if anyone found any alternative to this kind of service ..of course FREE.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Recently I am getting lot of comments which in my Cost of Living in Singapore post around comfortable salary in Singapore. Also some readers directly give their salary they are being offered in Singapore and ask whether this is enough. Most of these questions are covered in my Readers Mailbags

Even then I do get questions like these. So I thought of writing about it.

Q: What is comfortable salary in Singapore ?

A: Now do you think any one can answer this ? Meaning of comfortable can be different for everyone because it actually depends on what your are earning now and what is your expectation when you start living in Singapore. Singapore offers comfortable living to all levels of people who come here. So defining what is comfortable for you is upto you. If you are a bachelor and sharing apartment with 4-5 friends then you save big amount on rent. This way your comfortable salary comes down as compared to someone who is married and not sharing the apartment.

More than earning comfortable salary, I believe people are looking for more and more savings when they are moving to Singapore or for that matter USA. It cannot be like that. Earning and savings are two different things as it all depends on how much you spend(expenses) over a period of time. So always try to put the savings for a period of 1 year or 3-5 year term rather than trying to see how much you will start saving once you land here or any new country.

Q: I am going to get $3500 or $2500 will it comfortable for living ?

A: This is a typical question again. As you can understand that there are some basic costs involved in any country you live in. You can only reduce some of the stuff like Rent, if you are sharing with someone. But some other costs like Grocery, School Fees, Utility Charges, Commute etc is something for which you must budget some minimum amount depending on your own lifestyle.

So the answer to above question is something you need to figure out by researching the facts(Google is your best friend!) and probably asking questions to your friends.

If you still have more specific questions, I will try to answer as much as possible based on my own experience. Which will provide good starting point for you to research further.

I went to pondicherry last weekend as I really wanted to "give time a break". Its been long time I have been thinking of going to...

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The views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my current employer and its affiliates. The views and opinions expressed by visitors to this blog are theirs and do not necessarily reflect mine.